Lancelot's 'Old' Friend
by PotterheadWhovian
Summary: Lancelot is searching the castle for an old sorcerer who has previously escaped from Arthur's grasp. However, what, or rather, WHO he finds is not quite what he expects. But is rather funny. Or at least Lancelot thinks so.


**A.N. I don't own Merlin, it belongs to the BBC. **

**To anyone reading my other fanfics, I would like to apologise for my lack of updates for a while, but, in my defence, I have been very busy with work and exams for a while. I will update as soon as I can, I have not forgotten about them.**

**This idea came to my head a while ago, and I thought I'd test it out. Enjoy **

The warning bells were going off, and Lancelot was carefully walking down one of the many corridors of the castle, with his sword drawn and at the ready. Apparently, there was an old sorcerer who had broken in. As he drowned out the clanging of the bell, he remembered what Arthur had said earlier.

"_You know who and what he is." Arthur looked around at his most trusted knights. "He escaped the flames once before, and we cannot let this happen again." Lancelot glanced around at the other knights. From the looks on their faces, only Leon knew what Arthur was talking about. He was about to ask about this, when Gwaine opened his mouth._

"_Sorry to bother you with this princess," Arthur scowled in his direction, "but I have no idea what you're talking about." Arthur let his frustration be heard._

"_This man is a sorcerer. You don't need to know too much about him, other than that." Gwaine opened his mouth again, but Arthur hastily started talking again. "Just look for a very old man. Long white hair and beard, he's not very fast." Arthur then rolled his eyes. "But still fast enough for _Mer_lin to let him run by." He looked around. "Where he anyway?" Lancelot looked around, and for the first time, noticed Merlin's absence. "Gaius?" Gaius stepped forwards from where he had been standing quietly._

"_I believe," he paused as though thinking of an excuse, "he is in the tavern, sire." Arthur groaned, frustrated again._

"_He's always in the tavern! When he gets back, tell him my stables need mucking out!" Gaius nodded._

"_Of course, sire." Arthur looked round once again at the knights._

"_Well, what are you waiting for? We need to catch the sorcerer!" And with that, he stormed out of the room, the other knights following after._

Lancelot was brought back to the present, when he heard a slight cough coming from the passage to his right. Quietly, he padded round, and saw the back of a man, who seemed to fit Arthur's description. He put the point of his sword on the man's back.

"Excuse me!" The old man exclaimed. He turned round quickly. "That happens to hurt!" The old man looked up at Lancelot, and his eyes widened slightly. Lancelot lowered his sword, looking into the old man's eyes. He bent over, trying not to let a sound escape from his lips. He snorted. The old man pulled a face.

"I'm sorry." Lancelot said, standing upright once again, and trying to stop himself from laughing. "Really? I should have known! Why else wouldn't you have been around earlier when the bells went off." The old man grunted. "What do they call you like this, anyway?"

"I am Dragoon, the Great!" Lancelot had to try and stifle another bought of laughter.

"Were you put on the spot for the name, Merlin?"

"I told you, I am Dragoon." Lancelot managed to stop snickering.

"I'm sorry. What are you doing like this anyway?"

"When the castle is under attack, the only way to deal with it, with my magic, is to go about it in disguise!" Lancelot raised his eyebrow.

"No one was attacking the castle."

"They were this morning. I was heading back to Gaius' chambers to get the potion to change me back when I was spotted."

"How do you plan to get out of this one?"

"Well," The 'old man' started haughtily, "I would hope that you would just let me be on my way." Lancelot raised his eyebrows. "The sooner I can get that potion, the sooner I can get back to normal, and the sorcerer would have vanished." 'Dragoon the Great' roughly pushed past the snickering Lancelot, and went on his way.

"Oh, Dragoon?" Lancelot called. Dragoon stopped and groaned loudly.

"What?" He said shortly, turning around to face the knight.

"Why didn't you bring the potion with you?"

"Does this thing look like it has pockets to you?"

"Yes."

"Well, I…" Dragoon started, but quickly stopped talking at the sound of approaching footsteps. While Lancelot was in a position that he could see who was coming, 'Dragoon' could not, and so shuffled behind a pillar.

Gaius walked around the corner, and saw Lancelot, who seemed to be struggling to keep his composure. Gaius sighed, and rolled his eyes, and inclined his head towards the pillar. Lancelot nodded, and seemed to be shaking with silent laughter.

"You know," Gaius started, "It never fails to amaze me how stupid you can be." Dragoons head popped out from behind the pillar.

"Ah." He said articulately.

"Next time you plan on doing this, at least have the sense to remember to bring the potion with you. Last time, you almost ended up being burnt at the stake!"

"Well last time I didn't know I needed the potion, did I?" Dragoon stuck out his chin in defiance.

"Just drink the potion, and take that robe off, before any one else spots you." Dragoon shuffled forwards, took and downed the potion.

Dragoon got younger before their eyes, and soon, Merlin was standing in front of them. He pulled his long robe over his head, and bundled it up.

"You're lucky it wasn't one of the other knights who found you." Gaius stated. Merlin opened his mouth to reply, but Lancelot quickly cut across.

"So what are we meant to tell Arthur then? That we saw him escape?" Gaius looked at his ward, and sighed.

"You'll just have to tell Arthur you saw the old man vanish before your eyes, as SOMEONE didn't THINK properly." As Gaius spoke, he whacked Merlin around the head.

"Ow." Merlin rubbed the back of his head, ruefully. Merlin and Lancelot started to head towards the council chambers.

"Oh, and Merlin?" Merlin turned around to face Gaius. "Arthur asked me to pass on the message that you need to muck out his horses."

"What did I do to deserve that?" Merlin exclaimed.

"I think it was being to slow to catch the old sorcerer as he shuffled past you, and then being in the tavern, rather than helping with the search." Lancelot supplied, helpfully.

"Will you stop using the tavern as an excuse?" Merlin called after his mentor's retreating back. "The prat seems to think I spend more time drunk in the tavern than Gwaine, and that's saying something!"

"I resent that fact." Gwaine's voice grumbled, though when the two men turned around, he looked perfectly cheerful.

"It's your own fault you got that reputation." Merlin muttered.

"What can I say," Gwaine shook his hair out of his eyes, "Someone in there must like me, as I haven't been chucked out."

"Yet."

"It's still an achievement." Gwaine said, proudly. "Any sign of that old sorcerer then?"

"I saw his vanish before my eyes." Lancelot said seriously, although eyes were glittering with mirth.

"Ah, well we'd better inform princess then." Gwaine started striding away. "He's not going to be happy about this."

"You know, technically, I didn't lie." Lancelot muttered in Merlin's ear.

"He escaped again!" Arthur exclaimed.

"I'm sure you'll capture him eventually, sire." Merlin said, casually. Lancelot snorted. Merlin may have thought he sounded sincere, but Lancelot could see that Arthur had heard the sarcastic undertones, as his eyes narrowed.

"Well, _Mer_lin, it seems you will need to start training, so you don't let a doddery old man out run you for the third time." Arthur grinned.

"What- but I'm not the one who lost him?"

"No," Arthur conceded, "But from what I heard, you've been in the tavern again, when you should have been here. And, I think we can forgive Lancelot if the sorcerer did indeed vanish before his eyes, then there's not much he could of done. So you, _Mer_lin, will be mucking out the stables." Merlin groaned.

"So I've heard." Merlin muttered, as he headed out the doors. Lancelot had to fight another laugh as he heard Merlin mutter on his way out. "And Gaius says _I _can't think under pressure."

As soon as the door slammed shut behind Merlin, Arthur sank into a chair, and put his hand to his head.

"One day we will catch this sorcerer." Arthur informed his men. "We will send out a search party tomorrow morning to see if we can find him."

"Princess, why do you go to all this trouble for this one sorcerer. He's gone now."

"He's a sorcerer, Gwaine." Arthur replied, tiredly. "It's my duty to my people to hunt down the threat. But there's something about him…" Arthur trailed off. Lancelot raised his eyebrows.

"Are you saying you know him, sire." He asked, politly.

"He seems familiar for some reason."

"I know the feeling." Lancelot said quietly, while his eyes glittered with mirth. Gwaine looked at him curiously.

"You're dismissed for now. You can go." Arthur said tiredly.

Lancelot made his way towards the stables.

"You know, Merlin, if Arthur thinks hard enough, he'll figure out who the old man is." He said, as he entered the stable that was emitting grumbles.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't want him to hurt himself." Merlin stuck his pitchfork in a stack of hay, and turned to look at Lancelot, who was shaking slightly. He rolled his eyes. "Alright, get it out of your system, if you must." He huffed. This being all the incentive Lancelot needed, he burst out laughing.

"You just looked so funny." Lancelot said in-between laughs. "You must really use him to get out your frustrations." Merlin started to grin, in spite of himself, watching the usually pristine and dignified Lancelot almost rolling around the stable floors laughing. "You were so grumpy!" Merlin leaned on his pitchfork while waiting for Lancelot to re-gain control over himself.

Gwaine had been wandering around, thinking about going to the tavern, when he heard an explosion of mirth from one of the stables. Intrigued, he followed the noise, and found one of the last sights he expected to see. Lancelot, _perfect Lancelot_, was in hysterics.

"What am I missing here?" He asked, making himself known. Merlin started, and reached to pick up his abandoned pitchfork, before realising who it was.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Lancelot said, as he regained some of his dignity. Gwaine raised his eyebrows.

"The sorcerer can't have been _that_ funny."

"No, of course not." Lancelot only stumbled a little over his words. Gwaine narrowed his eyes.

"I suppose you think we have nothing to worry about with this sorcerer on the loose."

"I never said that." Lancelot said quickly. Merlin looked half worried, half scared.

"Relax, mate, I didn't grow up in Camelot, I don't share Princesses views on magic." Both men relaxed. "I'm just saying, your lack of worry over this almost makes me think you _know_ this sorcerer." The tense atmosphere was back.

"Me? Know a sorcerer? Preposterous!" Gwaine wasn't buying it. Merlin rolled his eyes.

"And everyone says I don't know how to lie." Lancelot elbowed him.

"Merlin, I came down here to ask you something." Gwaine said. While not entirely the truth, he did want to ask Merlin something.

"What did you want to ask?" Merlin questioned, warily.

"How do we stop Princess searching for this 'dangerous sorcerer'? We all know he's never going to catch him." Merlin and Lancelot looked shocked. "Well, unless he _wants_ to be caught, that is." The other two remained silent. "Maybe he's not actually old at all…" Gwaine shrugged. "Who knows?" He winked at Merlin, and sauntered out of the stables.

"I think he knows." Gwaine heard Merlin say. He snorted. He may be a known drunkard, but even he knew that plates don't fly by themselves. And trees can't choose to favour those fighting with Arthur. Gwaine could go on for a long time. All he knew, was next time this 'old sorcerer' appeared, he wanted to see him. If seeing Merlin like that made Lancelot laugh that hard, well. It was something Gwaine wanted to see for himself.

**A.N. So, I guess Gwaine knows then… I just like the idea of Gwaine knowing. Anyway, I thought it would be funny if Lancelot met 'Dragoon the Great', so this is what came out of it. It's not my best work, but like I said earlier, I have been very busy recently, but I did want to put this up.**

**Random note, that no one will care about – I wasn't too sure how to end this, so I hope you think the ending is fine, but I am quite pleased that this fic has the same number of words as my year of birth. Yay! (You all REALLY needed to know that, of course). **

**Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this **


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